"I can't sleep 'cause what if I dream of going back to San Diego. We bought a one way ticket so we can go see The Cure and listen to our favorite songs in the parking lot. And think of every person I ever lost in San Diego!" - Matt Skiba on 'San Diego' off Blink-182's record, California

Update (June 30th, 2016): Final stats - 33 shows, 81 different songs played. Only 2 songs (Lovesong & Just Like Heaven)
played at every show (this is due to the short Sasquatch show), 4 songs only
played once. Charlotte, NC saw the final NA tour debut, and it was Mint Car. (via Setlist.fm)

Songs only played once: Same Deep Water As You (New Orleans 2) / The Drowning Man (El Paso) / The Top (Chicago 1) / Mint Car (Charlotte)

Update (June 21st, 2016): 28 shows, 80 different songs played. Only 2 songs
played at every show (this is due to the short Sasquatch show), 5 only
played once. NYC Night 3 saw the tour debut of Bananafishbones. (via Setlist.fm)

Update
(June 15th, 2016): 24 shows, 79 different songs played. Only 2 songs
played at every show (this is due to the short Sasquatch show), 6 only played once. Chicago night 1 saw the tour debut of The Top, and Montreal
saw the tour debut of Pornography. (via Setlist.fm)

Update (June 3rd, 2016): 16 shows, 77 different songs played. Only 2 songs played at every show (this is due to the short Sasquatch show), 8 only played once. Vancouver saw the tour debut of Like Cockatoos, and Boise saw the tour debut of Sinking. (via Setlist.fm)

Update (May 27th, 2016): 12 shows, 75 different songs played. 4 songs played at every show, 8 only played once. After 3 straight shows without any debuts, Mountain View saw the tour debuts of Kyoto Song and Cold. (via Setlist.fm)

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

"The Cure's ongoing world tour brought them to New York City's Madison Square Garden this week for an incredible three-night stand. Without a new album to support, Robert Smith and his band group dug deep into their catalog and broke out classics like "Fascination Street" and "Disintegration" along with newer tracks like "The Hungry Ghost" and "It Can Never Be the Same." Most nights they play for nearly three hours, going through four encores and always wrapping up with "Boys Don't Cry."

Now we have a question for you: What is the Cure's best song? Feel free to vote for an early favorite like "Killing an Arab" and "A Forest," a huge radio hit like "Just Like Heaven" and "Friday I'm in Love" or something more recent, such as "The Perfect Boy" or "Freakshow." Any song recorded by the Cure at any point in their career counts. Just please only vote for one song and only one time.

10. Boys Don't Cry
09. Fascination Street
08. From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
07. The Same Deep Water As You
06. Faith
05. In Between Days
04. Disintegration
03. Just Like Heaven
02. A Forest
01. Pictures of You

Punk rock is one of the few cultural forces that can be described as both anarchistic and conservative. On one hand, punk bands use their music to preach about extreme politics and pseudo-revolutionary propaganda like the freedom fighters they claim to be. On the other hand, their single minded devotion to music that’s raw, fast, and political means they tend to get cliquey and dismissive when discussing artists that don’t fit into their limiting idea of what is or is not punk.

Considering punk rock spends a majority of its time trash talking mainstream pop, it’s easy to forget that many of punks founding bands were inspired by pop from the ’50s and ’60s. Nowhere is this more apparent than on Boys Don’t Cry, The American debut of The Cure and an album that successfully combines the diverging sounds of punk, vintage pop, and modernist sensibilities.

Boys Don’t Cry is a different beast than The Cure’s British debut, Three Imaginary Boys, since its restructured track list gives the album a different feel. Three Imaginary Boys focused on slower and weirder tracks while Boys Don’t Cry jettisons those in favor of recently released singles such as “Jumping Someone Else’s Train” and the iconic title track. Surprisingly, Boys Don’t Cry has held up better over time since it has a stronger song selection and a greater sense of immediacy. The British record oftentimes make them sound like pretentious, faux-art school intellectuals.

Monday, June 27, 2016

June 27th, 2016Bayfront Park Amphitheatre in Miami, FL
Sold Out! / Doors at 6 PM Eastern
The Twilight Sad 7 - 7:40 / The Cure 8:03 -10:53
Get there early for The Twilight Sad! They're excellent!

Twilight Sad setlist: Reflection of the Television, Last January, That Summer at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy, Alphabet, It Never Was the Same, There's a Girl in the Corner, The Wrong Car

Setlist: Out of This World, Pictures of You, Closedown, The Hungry Ghost, A Night Like This, All I Want, Push, In Between Days, Jupiter Crash, Want, Fascination Street, The End of the World, Lovesong, Just Like Heaven, The Last Day of Summer, 39, Bloodflowers

Twilight Sad setlist: Cold Days From the Birdhouse, Last January, Drown So I Can Watch, Don't Move, It Never Was the Same, There's a Girl in the Corner, And She Would Darken the Memory

Setlist: Tape / Open, Kyoto Song, A Night Like This, Push, In Between Days, Pictures of You, Closedown, High, The Walk, Sleep When I'm Dead, If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, This Twilight Garden, Lovesong, Just Like Heaven, Trust, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, alt.end, End

1st encore: Cold, A Strange Day, The Hanging Garden, One Hundred Years